BIO

Whitney Isaacson originally comes from Hawley, Minnesota. Whitney graduated from Hawley High School in 2019. At Hawley High School, Whitney was Class Vice President, participated in National Honor Society, Student Council, Philanthropy and Youth, PopSingers, and played volleyball. Whitney also received the title of Miss Hawley 2018 while participating in a scholarship pageant.

Now, Whitney is a senior pursing a degree in Community Health Education with a Business Administration minor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. On campus, Whitney is the President of Eta Sigma Gamma, an active member of a health advocacy organization called HealthPROS, a Community Advisor for Residential Life, and a group fitness instructor. 

Some of Whitney’s hobbies include hiking/biking, spending time with her golden retrievers, and playing board games. Whitney also enjoys volunteering with the American Lung Association by being an advocate in campaigns and through attending workgroups, and volunteering to teach fitness classes for adults with disabilities for a local nonprofit.

After graduation, Whitney would like to pursue a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration. A philosophy that Whitney lives by is to strive to always do her best in everything that she does and to see the best in everyone she encounters.

Read More About Whitney's Experience!

"I am very thankful to have attended the SOPHE 2021 Advocacy Summit. It was a great opportunity to grow and develop professionally. I got to learn from a variety of different public health professionals and network with fellow health educators. There was a wide range of sessions to be able to attend all relating to the topic of Health Equity at Every Level. Some of the sessions I was able to attend were Integrating Research-to-Policy Translation Skills Into Public Health Professional Workforce Training: An Innovative Online Resource for Planning Policy Advocacy Campaigns, Lessons Learned from a Campus-Community Partnership to Support Youth Advocacy, How to Advocate for Anti-Racist Policies and Practices on University Campuses, and Bridging the Classroom and Community: Training the Next Generation of Health Equity Advocates.

The SOPHE 2021 Advocacy Summit helped me improve the skills I already have pertaining to health education/public health. Professional conferences such as the SOPHE 2021 Advocacy Summit provide so many benefits such as making new professional connections and increasing your knowledge base. The benefit of networking with others in your field at conferences is one of the best ways to hear from other professionals and exchange ideas. Increasing one’s knowledge base is also a great benefit of conferences. The learning experiences from conferences like these are a huge way to hear from well informed presenters and connect with them through questions and feedback.

 Some of my key takeaways from this virtual conference that public health professionals need to be better advocates in order to make change happen. There are gaps between public health education, research, practice, and the role of advocacy that effect policies actually changing. This is because we need to be better advocates. Advocacy is a set of tools that public health educators need to be well educated on to be able to utilize well. Public health education typically lacks the right advocacy tools in it’s curriculum which is needed to build strong public health educators/advocates. We need to focus more on how to actually advocate well and apply pressure on decision makers to reach our desired policy goals. Some advocacy tools that we should focus more on would research and data collection, coalition building and maintenance, fundraising and development, grassroots and key contacts, media advocacy, and decision maker advocacy. These are all things that we should foster in the public health education curriculum. Also, real life advocacy experience is important as well. We need more hands on opportunities such as speaking with law makers. When working with law makers, it is important to share lived experience and stories, those are the most moving and meaningful. 

The SOPHE 2021 Advocacy Summit was great professional development opportunity. All the information I retained and learned was beneficial to helping me foster my advocacy skills in the public health field. I plan on utilizing what I learned about being a good advocate in my future advocacy experiences. I also plan on incorporating this knowledge in all the health education service projects, research, and educational assignments that I do. This will help me in the long run be a better public health professional."